Geospatial imagery and re/insurance intelligence company, McKenzie Intelligence Services (MIS), has announced a strategic partnership with digital first Managing General Agent (MGA) McCosh Holdings Ltd, trading as Yokahu.
Yokahu uses parametric underwriting and data visualisation to provide hurricane and tropical cyclone protection.
The business is an approved Coverholder at Lloyd’s and is set to launch in four jurisdictions in 2021 – Jamaica, the US Virgin Islands, The Bahamas, and St Lucia – with further expansion in 2022.
The partnership sees MIS become the sole trigger data provider for Yokahu’s parametric hurricane insurance product, with MIS acting as the independent third party verifying the parametric triggers for insurance payouts during an event, using automated intelligence from its Global Events Observer (GEO).
“It is really heartening to see two insurtechs team up to support pioneering parametric insurance products that ultimately improve the resilience of people at risk of natural disasters,” said McKenzie Intelligence Services Founder Forbes McKenzie.
“I’m delighted to be partnering with Tim and the innovative team at Yokahu to verify the parametric triggers for its ground-breaking hurricane insurance product. We originally supported Tim and his team as the data set provider to support the underwriting models for this product, so we are confident in this next step,” McKenzie continued.
“Using GEO’s multi-source intelligence, MIS will help deliver independent, fast and accurate trigger verification to support claims decisions and payments for customers. This is innovative thinking at its best – the benefits of the parametric approach means that immediate help, resources and security can be available in the event of a hurricane.”
Tim McCosh, Founder of Yokahu, also commented: “We are excited to form this partnership with McKenzie Intelligence Services, which will see us harness their leading edge technology to provide independent verification of parametric event triggers – further cementing the confidence and trust in our solutions.”
“Our parametric approach means that a claims payout is determined by the severity of the event at hand – and therefore can be triggered automatically. And we have arranged these funds to be transferred to an individual’s mobile phone so they have easy access when it matters most,” McCosh went on.
“We have future ambitions beyond hurricane and our partnership with MIS will enable us to create new products more quickly whilst maintaining customer and underwriter trust.”
